Here is part of the city of Karlstad, Varmland. We spent very little time in the city itself. It's situated on the Klaralven river, and on the shores of Swedens biggest (Europes 3rd largest) lake. It has aMcDonalds and a Burger King. The University is situated a few miles outside of the city. From the guide book on Sweden - 'Karlstad is one of the sunniest places in Sweden'. All I need to know. Varmland has the highest wolf density in Sweden, 3000 lakes in the region, white moose, historically an iron mining and logging area.
Here is the house of Agnes' uncle and aunt. It is inbetween Stockholm and Karlstad. It was built in 1842 the home of a local farmer/iron furnace owner. The little 'house' above is called a 'lusthus' - literally lust house. You can make what you will of that.
They have 17 ha of forest stream and mosquitos. Beaver live here. but we never saw any, but there was no hiding the biological engineering - check out the incredibly straight canal they contruct to drag trees to the wate (no plumb lines - I think this is fantastic). Agnes' uncle has a hypothesis that the beaver fell trees at such a height that the remaining jagged stumps make it awkward for wolves to jump and move around.
beaver dam
canal
wolf impaler
canal
wolf impalerOn the less exciting side of wildlife, the area is calcerious and so extremely good for specialist alkaline plants - and that means orchids. This ladies slipper orchid is quite rare in the UK - apparently it was reduced to a single plant in its native range (but some reintroduction program is bringing them back from the brink)
Cypripedium calceolus
All this bush walking comes at a price of course - and here the cost is measured in ticks. His is my patented 'summer tick protection' line of clothing. Experimenting on sock colour length/variation, but the concept is sound, and devilishly sexy.
The small town of Nora is only a short drive away from the home of Agnes' uncle/aunt. A quaint place - all cobbled streets and ice cream. Which in fact is what its famous for.
This is what Agnes calls "sharing" an icecream:
Cypripedium calceolus
All this bush walking comes at a price of course - and here the cost is measured in ticks. His is my patented 'summer tick protection' line of clothing. Experimenting on sock colour length/variation, but the concept is sound, and devilishly sexy.
The small town of Nora is only a short drive away from the home of Agnes' uncle/aunt. A quaint place - all cobbled streets and ice cream. Which in fact is what its famous for.
This is what Agnes calls "sharing" an icecream:
3 comments:
Is that a jackdaw eating icecream? The neck feathers are more distinctly grey than the British ones.
The beavers' constructions are ingenious. That part of Sweden looks very interesting from many aspects.
yes I think the 3rd metatarsel is 2.3 mm longer in the swedish jackdaw too.
but only on the left foot
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